Flight testing of an aircraft involves the use of a relatively large quantity of flight test equipment units for testing the operation of various systems and components of the aircraft during flight. For example, flight testing of a transport aircraft may require the installation of a plurality of ballast tanks at different locations along a length of the aircraft fuselage. The ballast tanks may contain liquid such as water which may be pumped through conduits connecting the ballast tanks to shift the center of gravity (CG) of the aircraft forward or aftward during flight to assess the effect of CG shift on aircraft performance. The flight test equipment may also include a large quantity of electronic components such as data acquisition devices, data processors, and other electronic equipment for monitoring and analyzing the performance of the various aircraft systems. For example, the flight test equipment may include data acquisition devices and processors to collect and analyze data from sensors configured to measure the operating characteristics of the aircraft propulsion units, flight controls, and a variety of other aircraft systems.
Conventional methods for configuring an aircraft for flight testing may include mounting the large quantity of individual flight test equipment components in the aircraft interior. Each component may be permanently attached to individual mounting points which may be unique to the aircraft and therefore must be custom-designed and manufactured for each component. Prior to installation on the aircraft, the individual flight test equipment components must be electrically interconnected to one another and pre-tested to confirm that the assembled components function as intended. Following pre-testing, the components must be disconnected from one another, and manually installed in the aircraft where each component may be individually attached to the customized mount points in the aircraft interior and electrically interconnected. Following flight testing, the individual flight test components must be detached from their individual mounting points, electrically disconnected from one another, and then manually removed from the aircraft. Unfortunately, the above-described conventional method of installing and removing flight test equipment from an aircraft is a complex and time-consuming operation.
As can be seen, there exists a need in the art for a system and method for installing and removing flight test equipment from an aircraft in a manner that avoids the time and complexity associated with the mounting and electrical interconnecting individual flight test equipment components.